All about ski lifts, tramways and gondolas

Just weeks after declaring the Teocalli lift wouldn’t spin this season due to needed maintenance, Crested Butte Mountain Resort today announced the Riblet double will be replaced with a new fixed-grip quad next summer. Teocalli opened in 1979 and was the last operating Riblet lift at the resort. Pending Forest Service approval, the larger lift will increase capacity by more than 50 percent. The lower terminal will remain in its current location while the top station will shift closer to the Red Lady Express summit.

“The realignment and improved capacity of the lift will provide an elevated on-mountain experience via quick terrain access, improved egress to the resort base area and access to Uley’s Cabin – one of CBMR’s premier on mountain restaurants,” said Tim Baker, general manager of the resort in a blog post. “We believe this investment can provide a significant benefit to a variety of guests in the near future, and we’ll continue to listen to feedback and evaluate other potential investments that will have a similar impact for a spectrum of guests moving forward.” Ten of Crested Butte’s eleven lifts are of Leitner-Poma lineage but no manufacturer was specified. The new lift is the third to be announced by Vail Resorts for 2019, following the company’s commitment to replace two chairlifts at Stevens Pass next summer. Both Crested Butte and Stevens were acquired by Vail last summer.

Eh. It’s still French. Just like Doppelmayr is still Austrian–Swiss. Just like Crapota America is still Crapota Japan and Fiet Chrysler is.. well.. owned by the Italians. Just like Airbus aircraft made in the USA is still.. French owned Airbus. Not a true blue American company. Those rarely exist anymore.

It is interesting that they diverted form the master plan on this lift which was to start it lower on the mountain. Another example where Vail Resorts comes in and makes changes to the then applicable plan.

The two lifts are quite different. However, Teocalli was a pretty well maintained lift in my opinion when I have visited CB and I was just there this winter. I’m not sure if shuttering the lift for the year was a “way” of getting it replaced by one that newer one or not. However, if the bullwheel was cracked, it would be quite hard to get a new one fabricated.

Line machinery is the same. Clips could be the same, depending on rope size. Chairs are the same. I don’t know what’s in the respective motor rooms but many parts are transferrable. It would be a question of whether my counterparts at CB would be willing to do that, or if VR would rather just replace or remove it.

Vail only has two mountains that always go with the same manufacturer. Beaver Creek will always go Doppelmayr, and Breckenridge will always go Leitner-Poma. I think that ultimately the brand loyalty will be upheld at the Triple Peaks areas.

Pretty much. Breckenridge has been solely a Poma/Leitner-Poma buyer for 33 years. And every lift at Beaver Creek is either from Doppelmayr or a company that was merged with Doppelmayr, with the exception of Highlands (and even that has Doppelmayr lifting frames).

Vail proper doesn’t fall into this brand loyalty because their streak of 13 years of Poma loyalty was broken when they went to Doppelmayr for their first two high speed six packs, then back to Leitner-Poma for the Sun Up Express and Northwoods Express lifts. Keystone went with Doppelmayr for the River Run Gondola, then Leitner-Poma for the Montezuma Express, and they’ve even had Skytrac come in to do modifications to A-51.

Leitner-Poma is a shoo-in for Teocalli, and it’s a guarantee at this point it’ll be the first lift the mountain has received that features the current type of footrest used on LPA models, though it will have Omega chairs owing to the inability of LPA chairs to work on fixed-grips. And if Twister gets replaced with a fixed grip quad in the future (per the master plan), it’ll be the same case, though hopefully running daily and being realigned so as to make it possible to access High Lift from it.

Ooo, Vail’s first complete Skytrac lift. Vail has bought replacement/retrofit parts from Skytrac before, but this is big news for Skytrac as most of their customers have been smaller, independent resorts. My guess is this lift will come with LPOA sheaves, instead of Skytrac/CTEC sheaves.

I called today about getting one of the chairs from the old lift. They nice lady made it sound like the lift was going to be scrapped as the chairs were going to be “divied up between people”.

I personally would like to see this lift be a Skytrac, because I feel as though Colorado needs some Skytrac lifts. I love their product for fixed grip chairlifts and I think they are some of the best Fixed Grips ever made! From my understanding, they are a higher speed fixed grip chairlift at a lower cost. I don’t know what Vail will do since they do not operate many Skytrac Lifts.